Prices of the electricity we use to charge

soundwave

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id have said yes m8 i sell $hit loads of crack and dont pay any tax like you :p
 
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guerney

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scientists at US NIF will announce tomorrow that they put 2.1 megajoules in and got 2.5 megajoules out. So far so good. However, it costs them tens of millions $ to produce a single shot. Still, future prospects look pretty good. Essentially, 3MJ of laser being fired at the capsule, but only about 15kJ is actually absorbed by the pellet before fusion occurs. If they can improve the way the laser energy is converted into shockwave energy then it will surely lower the cost of the lasers.
"To produce 3.15 megajoules of energy, it required pouring 322 megajoules into the lasers used in the experiment."

"AI" to the rescue

Since humans can't manage fusion the US puts millions into AI-powered creation
Some terms and condition may apply

 
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PC2017

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AI-powered creation
yep just let Sky Net design, build & control our nuclear future [I haven't read the article but will] even with so called safe guards or once designed & built the AI has no access. If we need AI to design & build it how are we humans going to know if the sneaky little git didn't add a back door to starve humanity many-a-moons later by cutting the power or worse letting the capitalists have control whilst the AI suns its self on a beach with a solar power genny for its personal consumption.:p

Edit [After reading the article] No rush then $40B for war efforts, $1M for the future of humanities long term power solutions, oh & "please Mr Putin can you spare a cup full of uranium"
 
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Nealh

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Skynet 'hmmm' , beware of the Terminators coming.
 
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Woosh

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"To produce 3.15 megajoules of energy, it required pouring 322 megajoules into the lasers used in the experiment."
you have to look at the potential of the technology. Inertial confinement or plasma? To ignite the D-T pellet, you only need about 15kJ out of the 322 MJ. That's the important point. The low yield happens because it's a two stage process, the lasers hit the pellet's skin and excite it, the latter then produces an x-ray laser around itself which compresses the pellet. Recently, they found that if they placed a coil around the shell, the coil reflects enough electromagnetic energy toward the inside of the shell and increases the fusion yield. Simple discoveries like this improve fusion condition and lead to success of this technology. While we use lasers because we need the speed, the yield of high power lasers follows still Moore's law for many years to come yet. It is possible that someone comes up with a better way to create the confinement shockwave instead of lasers.
The key point is the pellet can easily made bigger, not so for the plasma that needs to attain much more than 100 million degrees to reach fusion condition. Containment for the pellet is also easier, you can more or less capture not just heat but also electromagnetic energy from the pellet. Contrast that against the problem of finding a suitable material for the walls of the tokamaks which get damaged when the plasma veers off course.
 
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PC2017

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beware of the Terminators coming
Can't quite make my mind up on this one... however as a proof of concept... Many people said ebikes would never be viable for long range and look at us now...

Future Soldier
 

guerney

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Can't quite make my mind up on this one... however as a proof of concept... Many people said ebikes would never be viable for long range and look at us now...

Future Soldier
They'll be somewhat less showy: DJI drones which sit charging on lamposts, which surveil and swoop to fire tasers at your crotch should you take a p*ss against a wall on a night out. If they miss, they can shock you via the p*ss.
 
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guerney

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Containment for the pellet is also easier, you can more or less capture not just heat but also electromagnetic energy from the pellet. Contrast that against the problem of finding a suitable material for the walls of the tokamaks which get damaged when the plasma veers off course.
I'm in favour of much bigger tokomaks with the walls much further away, and situated under the ocean so that when it all goes t*tsup, we'll get a lot of boiled (or roasted) seafood after the oceans have been evaporated. Or maybe they'll finally find a way to accurately predict and control turbulence.
 

soundwave

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guerney

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Nah, it'll be DJI drones playing elevator music and shooting hundreds of spinning scalpels: lightweight, painful easy crowd control and convenient post drone attack ID. Just lock up the tasered bleeders still alive...
 

soundwave

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I'm in favour of much bigger tokomaks with the walls much further away, and situated under the ocean so that when it all goes t*tsup, we'll get a lot of boiled (or roasted) seafood after the oceans have been evaporated. Or maybe they'll finally find a way to accurately predict and control turbulence.
problem is with those the fuel they use would be gone in months.

 

guerney

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matthewslack

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flecc

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Mainly due to storage space running out after the panic stockpiling, combined with much milder weather than usual. The problem is far from over, though hopefully there will be a Ukraine cease fire after another summer of fighting in 1923.
.
 
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PC2017

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Domestic & business price continue to rise... they'll squeeze us for every penny and it won't be long till the damage will be irreversible, from mouldy homes, starving children to disenfranchised minds. Third world Britain for many. EDIT happy new year all...
 
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flecc

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Domestic & business price continue to rise... they'll squeeze us for every penny and it won't be long till the damage will be irreversible, from mouldy homes, starving children to disenfranchised minds. Third world Britain for many. EDIT happy new year all...
Perhaps it's the grand master plan.

Having almost destroyed the planet and reached the millennium, we now have to step back a thousand years of progress to save the planet by having simple, half starved lives in mouldy homes. ;)
.
 

PC2017

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to save the planet
I tend to agree, but the question is asked, who are we saving the planet for. if mere mortals have starved or become economically untethered.. I have a distinct feeling that Mr Gates' grandson, on a private beech found a washed up flipflop from the early 90's and showed it to his grandfather...
 
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soundwave

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All the other species on the planet which we have been decimating is the answer.
.

the 1% wont like that tho cos there ass is also on the line :p
 
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PC2017

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All the other species on the planet which we have been decimating is the answer.
Oh dear, the outlook is not favourable then, as another acre of rainforest is removed for mining, lumber or farming.
 
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